Building Hyperion: How Simmons Scattered His World
Six backstories and a guy made of knives.
Analysis: Page 2
Episode 394: Death Personified
Don't Fear the Reaper-Cast
Five Stories With Too Many Characters
How many characters is too many? We're glad you asked.
Five Stories With Well-Written Families
What if the hero wasn't an orphaned only child?
Episode 392: Obi-Wan Kenobi
But does he say "hello there," as the prophesy foretold?
Strange New Worlds Reveals the Danger of a Theme-Breaking Plot
In space, no one can hear you copying Alien.
Episode 391: Murderbot
Hacking governor modules across the corporate rim!
Who Wins: The Mandalorian, Boba Fett, or Obi-Wan?
Which show is the Force strong with?
Lessons From the Appropriative Writing of Gemma Doyle
An opening set in occupied India. What could go wrong?
Five Stories With Clashing Choices
Like a tug of war in the plot.
How You Can Tell Kamala Khan Has ADHD
A tale of coding so blatant that calling it coding is questionable.
Six Sloppy Character Arcs in Popular Stories
What lessons are we supposed to learn here?
Who Wins: The Martian, Artemis, or Project Hail Mary?
One author enters, one author leaves.
Six Important Story Elements Introduced Too Late
Would have been nice to know about this in advance.
Lessons From the Summary Writing of Illuminae
Does this novel redefine the form, or does it have bad form?
Who Wins: Antz, A Bug’s Life, or Ant-Man?
Uh-oh, there are ants all over this post.
Five Inexplicable Planets in Star Trek
They’re super weird with no explanation at all.
Five Underwhelming Reveals in Speculative Fiction
What happens when storytellers make mountains out of molehills.
Five Mediocre White Men From Big-Budget Stories
Why root for a heroic protagonist when you can root for a mediocre white dude instead?
Episode 373: Speculative Westerns
It can be horses or space ships, so long as someone has a duster.
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